Money and Banking Statistics Explanatory Notes 
       (Updated January 2016) 
       General 
       The Money and Banking Statistics (Tables A.1 – A.13) contain data on the liabilities and 
       assets of within-the-State offices of credit institutions, as collected under European Central 
       Bank Regulation ECB/2013/33.  These data are further broken down by institutional sector 
       and residency of counterparties and by the type and maturity of the main asset (loans, 
       holdings of securities) and liability instruments (deposits, securities issued) of interest.  This 
       allows for analysis of the underlying components of the monetary aggregates (e.g. deposits), 
       as well as the counterparts to money (e.g. loans).  The monthly Financial Statement of the 
       Central Bank of Ireland is also included in this suite of tables.  The credit institutions data are 
       released on the last working day of the month with reference to the last working day of the 
       previous month.  The Financial Statement of the Central Bank is released on the second 
       working Friday of the month, with reference to the last Friday of the previous month. 
       The reporting population which is covered in these tables are all credit institutions resident 
       in Ireland.   Credit institutions, as defined in Community Law, are undertakings whose 
       business is to receive deposits or other repayable funds from the public and to grant credits 
       for their own account and/or issue means of payment in the form of electronic money.  In 
       the Irish case, resident credit institutions comprise licensed banks, building societies and, 
       since January 2009, credit unions as regulated by the Registrar of Credit Unions.  A resident 
       office means an office or branch of the reporting institution which is located in ‘the State’ 
       (the Republic of Ireland). These are: institutions incorporated and located in the Republic of 
       Ireland, including subsidiaries of parent companies located outside the Republic of Ireland; 
       and branches of institutions that have their head office outside the Republic of Ireland. 
       Reporting institutions report the data in respect of their resident offices only. 
       The residency classification for counterparties conforms to international balance of 
       payments convention.  The tables presented here illustrate the main asset and liabilities 
       position of resident credit institutions vis-à-vis Irish residents, residents of other euro area 
       member states, and residents of non-euro area states.  Irish residents comprise the General 
       Government, individuals living in the State for at least one year, private non-profit making 
       bodies, and enterprises, both public and private, which operate within the State. 
                                               1 
        
                 Counterparties are further classified by their institutional sector, as defined in the European 
                 System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010):  
                     •   General Government refers  to entities which are under public control that are 
                         principally engaged in the production of non-market goods and services intended for 
                         individual and collective consumption and/or in the redistribution of national income 
                         and wealth.  They are mainly financed by compulsory payments by the population.  
                         General Government can be further sub-divided into central government and other 
                         general government.  Central government comprises all administrative departments, 
                         agencies, foundations, institutes and similar state bodies, whose competence 
                         extends over the whole economic territory.  Other general government comprises 
                         state/regional/local government administrative departments and agencies etc. 
                         whose competence covers only a restricted part of the economic territory, and social 
                         security funds. 
                     •   Households refer to individuals or groups of individuals acting as (i) consumers; (ii) 
                         producers of goods and non-financial services exclusively intended for their own 
                         final consumption and (iii) small-scale market producers (such as sole 
                         proprietorships and partnerships without independent legal status, usually drawing 
                         on their own labour and financial resources).  Non-profit institutions serving 
                         households (NPISHs) are included in this broad institutional sector and are defined as 
                         separate legal units which are principally engaged in serving particular groups of 
                         households and the main resources of which derive from occasional sales, voluntary 
                         contributions, occasional financing by general government and property income. 
                     •   Insurance Corporations (ICs) refer to financial corporations and quasi-corporations 
                         which are principally engaged in financial intermediation as a consequence of the 
                         pooling of risks, mainly in the form of direct insurance or reinsurance. This includes 
                         life and non-life insurance activity. 
                     •   Pension Funds (PFs) refer to financial corporations and quasi-corporations which are 
                         principally engaged in financial intermediation as a consequence of the pooling of 
                         social risks and needs of the insured persons (social insurance). Pension funds as 
                         social insurance schemes provide income in retirement, and often benefits for death 
                         and disability. Only pension schemes with autonomy of decision-making and with a 
                         complete set of accounts are included here.  Other pension funds, which remain part 
                         of the entity which set them up, e.g., company pension funds, are not included here. 
                     •   Monetary Financial Institutions (MFIs)  refer  to  credit institutions, as defined in 
                         Community Law, money market funds, and other resident financial institutions 
                         whose business is to receive deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits from 
                         entities other than MFIs, and, for their own account (at least in economic terms), to 
                         grant credits and/or to make investments in securities.  Since January 2009, credit 
                         institutions include Credit Unions as regulated by the Registrar of Credit Unions.  
                         Under ESA 2010, the Eurosystem (including the Central Bank of Ireland) and other 
                         non-euro area national central banks are included in the MFI institutional sector.  In 
                                                                                                                      2 
                  
                         the tables presented here, however, central banks are not included in the loans and 
                         deposits series with respect to MFI counterparties. 
                     •   Affiliated Deposit-Taking Corporations (DTCs)  refer  to all credit institutions and 
                         other deposit-taking corporations which are affiliated with the reporting institution. 
                     •   Non-Financial Corporations (NFCs) refer to all private and public institutional units 
                         which are not classified as financial corporations but rather in the production of 
                         goods and non-financial services with the object of generating profit.  In Ireland, 
                         commercial State-sponsored bodies are included in this institutional sector. 
                     •   Other Financial Intermediaries and Auxiliaries (OFIs) refer to financial corporations 
                         and quasi-corporations (except insurance corporations and pension funds) 
                         principally engaged in financial intermediation by incurring liabilities in forms other 
                         than currency, deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits from institutional units 
                         other than MFIs, or insurance technical reserves. Also included are financial 
                         auxiliaries consisting of all financial corporations and quasi-corporations that are 
                         principally engaged in auxiliary financial activities. This sector includes non-bank 
                         credit grantors, investment funds, treasury companies, hire purchase companies, 
                         securities and derivative dealers and financial vehicle corporations (FVCs). 
                     •   Non-MMF Investment Funds refer to shares/units issued by investment funds, other 
                         than Money Market Funds (MMFs). They include undertakings whose units or shares 
                         are, at the request of the holders, repurchased or redeemed directly or indirectly out 
                         of the undertaking’s assets; and undertakings which have a fixed number of issued 
                         shares and whose shareholders have to buy or sell existing shares when entering or 
                         leaving the fund. 
                     •   Financial Vehicle Corporations (FVCs) are securitisation vehicles. An FVC is defined 
                         in Article 1 of Regulation ECB/2013/406. An excerpt of this states that an FVC, means 
                         an undertaking: a) whose main function is to carry out one or more securitisation 
                         transactions, the structure of which insulates the FVC from the credit risk of the 
                         originator, or the insurance or reinsurance undertaking; and b) which issues 
                         securities that are offered for sale to the public or sold on the basis of private 
                         placements. 
                      
                     In some cases the totals in the tables may not equal the sum of their constituent parts 
                     due to rounding.  Recent data are often provisional and may be revised in the future.  In 
                     the tables, the wording “up to (x) years” means “up to and including (x) years”.  The 
                     maturity breakdown of the various asset and liability instruments in the Money and 
                     Banking Statistics  refers to original maturity and not residual maturity.  The data 
                     presented in the Money and Banking Statistics are neither seasonally nor working day 
                     adjusted.  The use of the term “private-sector” generally refers to the non-MFI, non-
                     government sectors (i.e. OFIs, ICs, PFs, NFCs and households).  The following symbols 
                     are used in the tables: 
                                                                                                                      3 
                  
                   
                                   n.a.     not available 
                                   . .      no figure to be expected 
                                   -        nil or negligible 
                   
                  The Money and Banking tables presented here have three components for most series: 
                      1.  Outstanding amounts 
                      2.  Monthly transactions 
                      3.  Annual rates of change 
                   
                  1.  Outstanding amounts refer to the assets and liabilities position recorded on the last 
                      working day of the period.  All positions are recorded at the value standing in reporting 
                      institutions books (“book value”).  All non-euro liabilities and assets, regardless of 
                      residency classification, are valued at mid-spot rates on the last working day of the 
                      period and recorded as euro equivalents of the amounts outstanding on those days.  The 
                      valuation of liabilities and assets would not normally include accrued interest payable or 
                      receivable on relevant accounts, nor would it include unearned interest charges.  
                      However, where a liability or asset is valued at market price which indistinguishably 
                      includes interest, such accrued interest may form part of the valuation; where interest is 
                      paid by means of discount, such interest may also be included in book value, if it is the 
                      accounting practice of reporting institutions to do so.  As of December 2010, the 
                      outstanding amount of loans is reported at nominal value, i.e. the gross position owed 
                      on loans by the credit institutions counterparties.  Prior to December 2010, the book 
                      value of loans is reported, which reflects the carrying value of these loans on credit 
                      institutions balance sheets and are  net of impairment provisions recognised against 
                      those loans.  As a result, the outstanding amount of loans and related series increased 
                      substantially in December 2010.  The underlying transactions and growth rates in loans 
                      when comparing December 2010 with previous periods have been corrected to adjust 
                      for the impact of this change in methodology and reflect underlying business activity. 
                  2.  Monthly transactions are calculated from monthly differences in outstanding amounts 
                      adjusted for reclassifications, other revaluations, exchange rate variations and any other 
                      changes which do not arise from transactions.  If                      represents the outstanding 
                      amount  on the credit institutions balance sheet at the end of month t,                             the 
                      reclassification adjustment in month t,          the exchange rate adjustment and             the other 
                      revaluation adjustments, the transactions in the period,             , are defined as:  
                   
                                                                                                                             4